


Let's Go

by glad_er



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 07:30:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3166595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glad_er/pseuds/glad_er
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternate ending to The Death Cure:<br/>Minho stayed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let's Go

“Let’s go,” Thomas says. “Come on.”

Minho can hear the defeat in his voice, he can hear him _giving up_ on Newt. And something inside him snaps.

“No.”

“What?” Thomas asks, incredulous.

“You heard me,” Minho hears himself reply, voice sharper than he intends it to be, his gaze focused on Newt. “I’m staying with him.”

Newt’s eyes are wide with insanity, and he shakes his head wildly, refusing.

“It’s not an option,” Minho says fiercely. “You can’t make me leave you behind.”

He kneels beside Newt, slowly unclasping the Launcher from his clammy fingers while Newt’s gaze remains on Thomas and the others. Minho looks at Brenda, and he knows that she sees he is an immovable force. She begins to tug on Thomas’ arm, leading him away from them. Thomas stares at his friends, taking one last look at them, and them at him, nodding before turning around and walking away swiftly, unable to bear leaving two of his most valued friends behind.

Minho watches him leave, and as he silently mourns the departure of a friend, he almost misses the tiny whisper coming from the fragile boy next to him, “you stayed.”

Minho realises that staying means more hurt, more heartbreak than if he had left with Thomas, but hell if he’s ever leaving this boy behind. He did it once on the Berg. Never again.

He attempts to lighten the mood, joking, “You can’t get rid of me that easily. I’m with you, ya shank. Till the end of the line.”

It’s a joke from somewhere he can’t quite remember, but it seems familiar and it works. He gets to see Newt’s lips stretch into a wide grin, and he gets to hear Newt’s wonderful laugh. But his eyes are a bit too wide, and his laugh is a bit too wild.

He’s losing Newt, and he doesn’t know what to do.

\----------

They leave the bowling alley, somehow evading detection. Maybe all the guards have left. Maybe they’re all dead. Minho leads Newt out of the Crank Palace, holding his hand because he isn’t taking any chances. Well, that’s half the reason. He’s not about to tell Newt the second half.

He holds the Launcher tight in the other hand, eyes wide and alert. He’s aware of the fact that Newt’s eyes are wide for an entirely different reason.

 _He won’t last long_ , says a little voice in the back of his head. _You remained behind for nothing._

But he isn’t going to give up. He stayed for Newt.

\----------

Minho finds them a place to hole up in for the next few days, at least. It’s in a part of the city that’s long dead. The cranks that used to be there have moved on, because there’s simply no life left. It’s the two of them against the world. He finds something resembling a mobile phone in one of the apartment buildings, and another in an office. He hands one to Newt, and takes the other whenever he goes out to search for food.

He thanks whoever it was that invented solar power for phones, because he spends all his time out on the phone with Newt, talking. It’s nothing special, to anyone else. They talk about things they can’t quite recall. They joke about times in the desert. They talk about how they were runners together. Partners. Minho doesn’t mention the Maze because Newt doesn’t either.

\----------

Newt remains in the apartment, listening for news through a broken radio that does nothing but crackle. Is it broken? Or is everyone else dead? They aren't sure. They know the chances are slim to none, but the hope is what keeps them alive. Barely. Minho crumbles a bit every time he sees a bit of Newt disappear.

\----------

It’s another month before things change.

The radio spurts to life, and Newt, already on the phone with Minho (because when is he not), tells him to  _run_. To run back to him, like he used to do in the maze, and like he has done every day since he made the decision to stay.

When they first hear the muffled broadcast, they can scarcely believe it.

“The cure has been found,” the monotonous voice read out. “Please report to the nearest medical centre to receive treatment.”

By the time he manages to process it, it has been repeated about a dozen times, Newt thinks he’s finally lost his mind. Minho thinks the same.

When they hear it again, Minho’s heart soars. Newt is going to be _okay_.

He looks to him, and utters the words, “good that.”

\----------

They pack up whatever they need, and leave to find a medical centre. There is a long queue, a long list of people with the Flare, sane enough to find treatment on their own. The ones who can’t do so are beyond treatment, they realise.

When it’s their turn, the doctors and nurses are surprised. They mutter to themselves, and Minho catches snippets of their conversation.

“… should have gone insane long ago…”

“How is this even possible?”

Minho ignores them, and focuses his attention on Newt, who is lying down on a makeshift hospital bed, colour slowly returning to his face, eyes slowly losing that bright light of insanity, and regaining the mischievous gleam Minho has sorely missed.

While he waits, he learns that W.I.C.K.E.D. crumbled, and a new organisation made up of experts from other countries, now immune to the Flare, invented the cure, and, after saving their own countries, ventured to the United States of America.

None of that matters to him anymore. What matters is that Newt is getting better.

\------------

“Minho?” Newt mutters weakly, eyelids fluttering.

Minho is asleep in a chair next to him, exhausted. Somehow, it’s so cliché. Newt stares at him fondly, before poking his arm. He knows Minho would want to be awoken the moment Newt came to.

“Hey, you shank,” Minho grins, ruffling Newt’s blond hair. “Nice to see you too.”

“Thank you for staying,” Newt whispers, before leaning forward and pecking him on the cheek.

That's the moment Minho  _knows_. He knows Newt is back, and immediately lunges forward to wrap his arms around him.

Newt laughs, returning the hug.

"What's that for?" He asks, confused but happy all the same.

"You're you." Minho responds, voice slightly muffled by Newt's shirt, before he lets go.

Minho recalls something that he overheard, and asks, “hey, did you know you were supposed to be crazy by the time we got here?”

Newt simply shrugs his shoulders, replying, “I don’t think so. You kept me sane."

As if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.

And how could it not be, Minho realises.

They seemed to have aged ten years in the last month, but their eyes are young and bright.

Newt remembers a phrase from another time, and he starts to laugh. Minho looks at him quizzically.

Giggling, Newt says in utter delight, “I listened to your advice.”

Minho is still confused.

“You told us ‘Be careful, don’t die.’” Newt explains, before exploding into a peal of laughter that Minho hasn’t heard in a long time, one that makes Minho join in.

"Where d'ya want to go from here?" Minho asks, stretching his arms out. "Lots of possibilities out there."

There is new bravery in Newt’s eyes as he says, “Let’s get out of here so I can give you a proper kiss.”

Minho grins.

“Let’s go.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I know this is a really different style from the other longer fic, but I'm trying out new things. Please comment and like if you can! Any criticism is gladly accepted (as long as it's polite, thanks. You can even tell me i suck politely) Thank you all for reading it! It isn't long, and probably wasn't what you were expecting, and the ending is pretty abrupt (as these sort of situations often are, in real life), But I just wrote this so my favourite characters could have their happy ending.


End file.
